Burt Reynolds and John Williams in a scene from the Twilight Zone episode “The Bard”.

By Steve Green: Burt Reynolds (1936-2018): US actor, died September 6, aged 82. Genre appearances include The Twilight Zone (one episode, 1963, “The Bard”), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Frankenstein and Me (1996), Universal Soldier II, Universal Soldier III (both 1998), The X-Files (one episode, 2002, as God).

Reynolds appeared in more than 90 feature films – most notably, Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit – and 300 television episodes (Darren McGavin’s sidekick in Riverboat, 50 episodes as Gunsmoke’s blacksmith, and the lead in Evening Shade).

The Hollywood Reporter’s obit also reveals this bit of showbiz lore, that he rejected a role that would have changed science fiction history:

Reynolds’ career also is marked by the movies he didn’t make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively